Uganda
_Looking
back, we're not sure how to explain it other than three little letters:
G-o-d. A girl from North Carolina. A boy from British Columbia. The two
journeys intersecting in Uganda.
Jennifer showed up in Uganda to stay with her cousins Syd and Andrea while they moved to the new location of New Hope Uganda at Musana Camps on the shores of Lake Victoria. It had been a fool hardy journey for Jennifer, a questionable one. She quit her job in Clemmons, NC, headed overseas for two months, and didn't really know why other than “God.” Conversely, John's church in Vancouver, BC had been connected with New Hope Uganda for several years through the life and ministry of Jay and Vicki, and when Kings Community Church organized a trip to Uganda, John and his brothers signed up and headed across the world.
Part of the team from King's Community stayed at the Kasana Children's Center while part of the team headed out to Musana Camp, five hours of treacherous driving away. John ended up on the team at Musana using his electrical skills to wire Syd and Andrea's new two-room house for future solar powered electricity.
During her two months in remote Uganda, Jennifer spent two hours each day prepping food, cooking meals, washing dishes, cleaning the facilities, laundering clothes for the four short term missions groups that came from the states. In a land of no electricity, no running water, no telephones, and no internet, cooking and cleaning and laundering isn't a normal experience.
Each evening, Syd would ask for volunteers to help Jennifer do the day's last round of dishes. Each evening, John was the one to help. Whether by design or not, the brothers had daily pawned their dishwashing duty off on him. She felt sorry for him, wishing the brothers wouldn't make him do all their work. He didn't mind. Washing dishes was fun with Jennifer.
As they drew the dishwasher from the cistern out back, boiled it over the gas stove, lit the candles as the sun set, and washed the massive pile of dishes, the two travelers laughed and talked and didn't talk and didn't laugh. They just stood side by side, working.
Jennifer showed up in Uganda to stay with her cousins Syd and Andrea while they moved to the new location of New Hope Uganda at Musana Camps on the shores of Lake Victoria. It had been a fool hardy journey for Jennifer, a questionable one. She quit her job in Clemmons, NC, headed overseas for two months, and didn't really know why other than “God.” Conversely, John's church in Vancouver, BC had been connected with New Hope Uganda for several years through the life and ministry of Jay and Vicki, and when Kings Community Church organized a trip to Uganda, John and his brothers signed up and headed across the world.
Part of the team from King's Community stayed at the Kasana Children's Center while part of the team headed out to Musana Camp, five hours of treacherous driving away. John ended up on the team at Musana using his electrical skills to wire Syd and Andrea's new two-room house for future solar powered electricity.
During her two months in remote Uganda, Jennifer spent two hours each day prepping food, cooking meals, washing dishes, cleaning the facilities, laundering clothes for the four short term missions groups that came from the states. In a land of no electricity, no running water, no telephones, and no internet, cooking and cleaning and laundering isn't a normal experience.
Each evening, Syd would ask for volunteers to help Jennifer do the day's last round of dishes. Each evening, John was the one to help. Whether by design or not, the brothers had daily pawned their dishwashing duty off on him. She felt sorry for him, wishing the brothers wouldn't make him do all their work. He didn't mind. Washing dishes was fun with Jennifer.
As they drew the dishwasher from the cistern out back, boiled it over the gas stove, lit the candles as the sun set, and washed the massive pile of dishes, the two travelers laughed and talked and didn't talk and didn't laugh. They just stood side by side, working.